I save an immense amount of time by relentlessly unsubscribing to emails. If an unsolicited and unwanted message hits my work or personal inbox, I immediately unsubscribe. This limits the inputs and controls my attention.
How To Get Started:
If you are starting with a large inbox:
Take all your emails and put them in a new folder. They are not deleted; they are just not in your inbox. Google allows you to archive emails, which also works well.
With a clean inbox, every time an unsolicited email comes in, unsubscribe by using the mail client unsubscribe feature or scrolling down to the bottom of the email, where the fine print states something similar to “unsubscribe” or “manage communication preferences.”
Alternatively, when you get an email that is obviously “junk,” move it to your “junk/spam” folder. This way, your email program should look to filter for emails like this in the future.
Over time, less junk will arrive in your inbox, and the emails/communications that matter will get the attention they deserve.
One more thing that may be worth mentioning is that you should always be cautious when opening any links to emails you don’t recognize. There seems to be a growing number of attempts for people to be scammed via emails and texts. It is always a good idea to hover over the sender's address to identify anything that looks “fishy” before clicking on hyperlinks. If something looks urgent, it is best practice to contact the sender via another method (i.e., phone), using an independent source for their contact information. Never use the information supplied in the email.
PS: Yes, I understand that you are probably reading this as an email, but I hope you are getting value from it. If not, I won’t be offended if you unsubscribe.